In class last week, we spent some time generally discussing the belief in God or something greater. A theme that I noticed during the discussion was that people had generally negative feelings about the belief in God. I heard many different comments relating to the problematic reasons for believing in God. One comment I heard was that believing in God is just something people do because they are bored with the process of daily living. After hearing other comments similar to this, I felt that people were completely forgetting the many positives that come with believing in God. With that said, I completely understand the problems with believing in God as far as reasoning goes; there is no way to prove the existence of God with evidence, and this is something that we talked about in our last class (I talked about this in my previous post). In addition, I understand that the belief in God could cause problems with a person’s life because they could spend their whole life waiting for something to come after they die that might not happen. Even with these potential problems, I feel that people are wrong when they imply that the belief in God is just something that distracts people from the process of living.
My belief in God relates to the idea that I feel there is something greater than what we cannot discover from conscious reasoning. This idea that there is something greater was said to be a type of faulty reasoning in class, but even if it is faulty reasoning, I do not think that should mean that it is problematic to believe in something greater. I think that people who believe in something greater will many times have an advantage over people who do not. I feel this way because I think that the belief in God or something greater actually empowers people. Every person will go through extremely difficult struggles during their lifetime, and I feel that a belief in something greater can help a person get through these tough times. A great example of this would be something that Laura said in class on Friday. She said that she believes in God because she had some very difficult experiences during her childhood, but she was able to make it through them by praying to God every night. It seems like her faith in God gave her a type of strength that she could not have had normally. When I experience difficult life circumstances, and life just seems completely unfair, my belief in something greater is able to get me through. Even though I cannot prove that God exists, I think that my faith in God is great because it provides me with an inner power that helps me succeed in my daily life. I think it was great that Laura explained how her faith in God has helped her; her story was a perfect example of the ways that the belief in God's existence can make a positive impact in someones life.
Many times, people’s reasons for believing in God or something greater can be problematic, but because of the reasons that I explained, I think the belief in God’s existence can be a great thing. As far as problems with believing in God or something greater, I think it is a major mistake to believe in God simply for the hope of making it into a better world after death. With that said, people need to remember the wonderful things that come from the belief in something greater. I am not saying it is bad to not believe in something greater, but I just think it is ludicrous to say that people who believe in God or something greater do so because they become bored with their normal life. Believing in God or something greater can make an extremely positive impact on a person’s life and it is important that we do not forget this.
Do you think the idea of believing in something greater should be separated from believing in God specifically, or are they the same thing?
I think that your question at the end of this post is really fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI am not honestly sure that there is a difference between believing in something greater and believing in god. The way I see it, the belief of god is supposed to represent the idea of "something greater", not as the Christian god so to speak, but any god that you look up to. The real problem is that these day's things are sort of blown out of proportion, so we forget what it means to believe in something greater, it is similar to the tap water issue: if you drink bottled water consistently for long enough, then the taste of normal tap water becomes strange tasting, even though it was probably better for you than the bottled water.
In the end, I think that everyone needs to believe in something higher than themselves, because we all work stronger when we aspire to something beyond our capability. The thing is, we each need to find that thing which we truly believe in, that thing that makes the most sense to you personally. Then a personal understanding of believing in something greater will make sense to anyone who does not believe.
What do you think of this?